Wikipedia has imposed a 10-day editing ban on the IP addresses connected to the U.S. House of Representatives, following a series of disruptive edits by congressional staffers.
The ban comes after the newly created @congressedits bot began tracking anonymous edits from congressional IP addresses, the Ars Technica website reported.
Wikipedia imposed a one-day ban earlier this month, but reinstated it Thursday when the page for the media news site Mediaite, which had reported before on the rogue edits, was edited by an anonymous congressional staffer to say it’s a “sexist transphobic” news outlet.
Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales told the BBC that the @congressedits Twitter account may have provoked cyber pranksters.
“There is a belief from some of the [Wikipedia] community that it only provoked someone - some prankster there in the office - to have an audience now for the pranks, and actually encouraged them rather than discouraged them,” he said.
“Maybe someone at the House of Representatives better think about their IT staff - they might be hunting them down this very moment,” he said.
Only anonymous edits from the House have been banned. House staffers could make a Wikipedia account, which would allow them to continue editing, Ars Technica reported.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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